Housing shortages are making homeownership unaffordable across the U.S.

Re:Housing shortages are making homeownership unaffordable a... by nathanaldensr on Sunday July 24, 2022 @07:44PM (#32218973)

Well, private property matters in the United States. "The government" can't just decide to bulldoze everything and start over. And seeing as how this isn't going to change, it's possible that not much can or should be done about it. Zoning is a tool that municipalities have at their disposal, but local government officials represent the people in their jurisdictions, often property owners--who pay significant taxes--so chances are they won't vote against their own interests.

I'm afraid there really aren't any good answers to these problems.

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Re:Housing shortages are making homeownership unaffordable a... by grandmczeb on Sunday July 24, 2022 @08:23PM (#32219242)

> Zoning is a tool that municipalities have at their disposal, but local government officials represent the people in their jurisdictions, often property owners--who pay significant taxes--so chances are they won't vote against their own interests.

One possible solution is for states to limit the zoning authority of high-demand municipalities that fail to produce housing. This is basically the idea of RHNA[1, 2] in California, although the process didn't have much teeth until recently.

[1] https://abag.ca.gov/our-work/housing/rhna-regional-housing-n...

[2] https://abag.ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021-06/Co...

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Re:Housing shortages are making homeownership unaffordable a... by nine_zeros on Sunday July 24, 2022 @08:55PM (#32219419)

But the US government can do something. They could pass a bill that allows a progressive tax write-off for builders who build X units. More write offs for redeveloping houses older than a hundred years.

Instead of all the tax cuts, borrowing and money printing done since trump era, we could have incentivized builders to build more.

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